In the production of molded plastic products or articles, it is frequently desirable to decorate or apply a transfer of artwork to each article. Usually, the molded plastic articles are successively passed through a decorating machine as a secondary operation where a heat responsive decorating material is transferred from a carrier ribbon or strip to each article by means of heat and a pressure die which corresponds to the desired artwork. The carrier strip of transfer material is longitudinally advanced from a supply roll while each article is being loaded into the decorating machine, and the scrap carrier strip is rewound onto a spool or directed into a scrap container.
It is apparent that the cost of producing molded plastic articles with predetermined decoration or other artwork, is significantly increased by the secondary operation for applying the artwork, especially when an operator is required for successively loading the articles into the decorating machine. While it has been proposed to insert transfer elements into the mold cavities when the mold is open and prior to injecting the plastics material, this manual operation of inserting the elements significantly increases the cycle time of the molding operation which adds to the cost of producing the articles and also requires the operator to place his fingers close to the hot mold components or sections.